-Caveat Lector- [radtimes] # 154 An informally produced compendium of vital irregularities. "We're living in rad times!" ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- How to assist RadTimes--> (See ** at end.) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Contents: --White House laments DNC chief's remarks --ACLU Calls For Hearings On Super Bowl Surveillance --Election protesters greet chief justice --Woman, atheist, anarchist --Rebels Resist Putting a Face to Fight for Rights (EZLN) --The Porto Alegre Media Blackout =================================================================== 02/05/2001 White House laments DNC chief's remarks <http://abcnews.go.com/wire/Politics/ap20010205_1059.html> WASHINGTON (AP) _ A White House spokesman fired back at the new head of the Democratic Party for questioning the legitimacy of President Bush's election, saying such remarks hurt efforts to build unity in Washington. Terry McAuliffe was picked Saturday as chairman of the Democratic National Committee. In his acceptance speech, he said of the election: "If Katherine Harris, Jeb Bush, Jim Baker and the U.S. Supreme Court hadn't tampered with the results, Al Gore would be president, George Bush would be back in Austin, and John Ashcroft would be home reading Southern Partisan magazine." White House press secretary Ari Fleischer on Monday called the remarks "disappointing." "I think that continuing to question the legitimacy of an election _ I'm not certain that even the Democrats in the Congress would share that point of view _ is not a wise way to begin tenure," Fleischer said. McAuliffe's comments reflected an "old Washington" mindset, he said. Bush, in contrast, is trying to bring a new climate marked "by principled disagreements and by civility," he said. DNC spokeswoman Jenny Backus said McAuliffe said nothing inappropriate, and she reiterated the party's view that Bush stole the election. "President Bush may be disappointed by Terry's speech, but he's not nearly as disappointed as the tens of thousands of Floridians whose votes weren't counted in the last election," she said. =================================================================== ACLU Calls for Public Hearings on Tampa's Snooper Bowl" Video Surveillance FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Thursday, February 1, 2001 MIAMI--In a letter sent to Tampa city officials today, the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida questioned the police department's use of intrusive surveillance technology at last Sunday's Super Bowl and called for public hearings on the use of security systems that may jeopardize the public's privacy rights. "While everyone has a reduced expectation of privacy while in public, including sitting in the stands with one's family at a Sunday afternoon football game, we do not believe that the public understands or accepts that they will be subjected to a computerized police line-up," the ACLU said in a letter signed by Florida Executive Director Howard L. Simon and Michael E. Pheneger of the ACLU's Greater Tampa Chapter. The public records request, addressed to Mayor Dick A. Greco and City Council Chairman Charlie Miranda, urged the city to turn over documents detailing how the video images captured by Tampa police at Sunday's Super Bowl will be used, stored and disposed of, and exactly which police databases were cross-matched with the digitized faces of thousands of unsuspecting sports fans and residents across town. In the letter, the ACLU also asks the Tampa City Council to schedule public meetings to discuss the complicated surveillance practice, and to hear from citizens who may be concerned about possible Fourth Amendment violations. The letter encouraged government officials to "exercise some control over the rapidly developing use of sophisticated face-identification systems before we become a society under constant surveillance." While similar surveillance systems are used at convenience stores, shopping malls and schools across the country, citizens are generally informed that the area is under surveillance and of the camera's whereabouts, unlike the thousands of sports fans who entered Raymond James Stadium for the big game. As they entered at turnstiles, fans had no clue their faces were being silently digitized and matched up against the mug shots of criminals and terrorists, or that they could be questioned or detained by officers. =================================================================== Rehnquist visits UA <http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/local/2_3_01rehnquist.html> Election protesters greet chief justice by LA MONICA EVERETT-HAYNES and MICHAEL R. GRAHAM Citizen Staff Writers Feb. 3, 2001 U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist was a few strides outside an auditorium yesterday at the University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law when about 250 protesters who wanted to be heard recognized him and started shouting. Their rhythmic chant of "Shame! Shame! Shame!" abruptly stopped and was followed by a booming chorus of boos. Rehnquist was in Tucson to speak as part of a roundtable discussion on federal courts. With a host of local and federal law enforcement officials on hand, some in SWAT gear, the protesters remained peaceful. They carried placards critical of the conservative justice, an Arizonan, who voted with the majority in the 5-4 decision that ended the Florida vote recount and, in effect, awarded the the presidential race to Republican George W. Bush. Toni Massaro, dean of the UA College of Law, said the protest was no surprise. "They exercised their First Amendment right and the security of everyone was observed," Massaro said. "It couldn't have been better." Rehnquist never looked toward the protesters - many holding signs denouncing him and the high court's decision to end the hotly contested election - as he was whisked away to a nearby van by U.S. marshals. Following his talk, he left the College of Law in a motorcade led by UA and Tucson police. Protesters held signs saying, "How can you sleep at night?", "Impeach Rehnquist", "Chief Injustice" and "Supreme Ripoff". Protester Robert Dougherty Jr., 41, a Democrat who works as an electrician, said Rehnquist played a "big part" in the presidential election outcome, which critics of the court's action say disenfranchised millions of American voters. "Freedom of speech is having your vote count, but that was violated," Dougherty said. "The Supreme Court four times said they weren't going to get involved. What he was doing was setting up road blocks so people couldn't vote." Rolando Figueroa, a 25-year-old Democrat and organizer of the Communications Workers of America protesters, said the Supreme Court "took what powers they had and took the election." "I am very upset that the Supreme Court has basically packed themselves for the next four years," he said. "This is not representative of the United States. One branch in office got to choose what (the other branch) put in office and that is highly immoral." Rehnquist, in his eighth year of teaching an "intersession" College of Law course on the history of the Supreme Court, was part of a roundtable discussion yesterday to examine the challenges faced by the federal courts in the 21st century. At the discussion, held in the Ares Auditorium, Rehnquist, other federal judges and academic scholars discussed class-action lawsuit reforms, structural innovations to accommodate increased case loads and procedural reforms for international law. =================================================================== Woman, atheist, anarchist February 3, 2001 Toledo Blade Questions surrounding the disappearance in 1995 of avowed atheist Madalyn Murray O'Hair, her son, Jon Garth Murray, and her 30-year-old granddaughter, Robyn Murray O'Hair, appear to be resolved in the plea deal prosecutors made with David R. Waters, the alleged mastermind of their abductions, and, police suspect, their deaths. In return for a 20-year sentence with no parole on one count of extortion (he was already serving time on related gun and theft charges), Waters led officials to the grave of the murdered and dismembered trio. While identities must be confirmed by autopsy, the presumption is that Waters revealed the right stuff. His cohort, Gary Paul Karr, is serving a life sentence on similar charges. The body of another suspected accomplice, Danny Fry, was found decapitated. Mrs. O'Hair had northwest Ohio connections. She was a graduate of Rossford High School and attended the University of Toledo and Ohio Northern University. She was a free thinking, free-wheeling, independent woman with a quick wit and grand senses both of humor and drama. She was larger than life well before women's lib was a buzzword. Her boisterous, pushy style in promoting her causes, especially her insistence on strict separation of church and state, made her a controversial but significant figure from the late 1950s until her disappearance. A complex person, she aroused animosity even in her son, William, a reformed drunk and born-again Christian, whose daughter was killed with her grandmother. Now an evangelist on the other side of the fence, he has in writings called his mom "evil." She told the world that atheists love themselves and their fellow humans instead of a god, that they reach inside themselves to solve their own problems and don't rely on an outside power, that heaven is something to strive for on earth each day, not something to accumulate brownie points for after death. She imagined herself "the most hated woman in America" and relished the notion. She insisted it proved the hypocrisy of Christians, who lambasted her though scripture told them to love their enemies. Agnostics, who aren't sure if they believe in a deity, she considered contemptibly gutless. She was quick to capitalize on the difference. At one time she toured with a fundamentalist preacher, sharing a stage and trading insults and opinions in front of paying audiences. Born into a Presbyterian family, she could argue scripture. She wanted her epitaph to acknowledge the three things that most succinctly defined her essence: "Woman, Atheist, Anarchist." Agree with her or not, she was an American original. With the discovery of her remains, we are now left to wonder about Jimmy Hoffa's. =================================================================== Rebels Resist Putting a Face to Fight for Rights <http://www.latimes.com:80/news/nation/20010202/t000009652.html> Debate over whether the Fox administration should give validity to masked guerrillas is just one of the divisive issues in the quest for peace in Chiapas. By JAMES F. SMITH, LA Times Staff Writer Friday, February 2, 2001 MEXICO CITY--The political jockeying these days to restart peace negotiations in the southern state of Chiapas sometimes descends to absurd levels. To wit: Will rebel leader Subcommander Marcos take off his ski mask when he emerges from the jungle and testifies before Congress here next month? And if he doesn't, will legislators walk out on him? Yet behind such maneuvering lie divisive issues that could derail one of the key initiatives of Mexican President Vicente Fox's 2-month-old administration. Fox has promised to end the dormant but dangerous 7-year-old uprising in Chiapas. Despite a cease-fire since a brief war in 1994, the conflict has fueled ugly tensions in the state and has embarrassed Mexico abroad. As he tries to move forward on a pledge to restart talks, Fox at times appears caught between competing forces in Mexican society and within his own government. Some advisors seem willing to take chances and make concessions for peace; other Fox allies refuse to be seen as conceding to a ragged band of ski-masked Maya guerrillas. Marcos and other leaders of the Zapatista National Liberation Army, in turn, are taking risks after years holed up in the jungle. Marcos welcomed Fox's election in July after seven decades of rule by the Institutional Revolutionary Party. The rebels called for "signals" from Fox that would justify resuming talks. They also declared that they would make a caravan pilgrimage to Mexico City to seek congressional adoption of Indian rights legislation. The unarmed "Zapatour," scheduled for Feb. 24 through March 11, is loaded with security and political risks for both sides. Ricardo Garcia Cervantes, leader of Fox's National Action Party in the Chamber of Deputies, said last week that he will not meet with anyone wearing a ski mask, which he declared would show a lack of respect for democratic institutions. Marcos responded Tuesday in the Universal daily: "For our part, we are not asking that they take off their pants to talk to us. Where does the law say we can't be there with ski masks?" The ski masks and bandannas worn by the Zapatistas have become synonymous with the intractable conflict in Chiapas since the uprising began Jan. 1, 1994. Since taking office, Fox has dismantled dozens of military roadblocks, closed four army bases and released 17 political prisoners, meeting in part the conditions set by Marcos for a resumption of peace talks. The rebel leader, however, insists that seven bases be shut and wants more prisoners released. Fox also submitted to Congress a bill embracing a deal reached by negotiators in 1996 that had been shelved by the previous government. The treaty would give indigenous people considerable autonomy, resolving a core rebel demand. These concessions have brought protests from some business leaders and conservative Catholic clergymen. Lately, Fox has also shown impatience with the rebels, saying they need to respond with equal good faith before he can go further. However, the president told a television interviewer Wednesday: "I am going to seek peace, taking the risks that might be necessary; I am going to be audacious. But in the end, an agreement needs both sides, and this is what we need here: for each side to be conceding a little, offering small displays of goodwill so that we arrive at the great event where peace is declared in Chiapas." Fox's Chiapas negotiator, Luis H. Alvarez, said Thursday that he wants to meet with the Zapatistas before the caravan to clarify any doubts about the administration's policy. Alvarez also said the government is pleased that the Zapatistas plan to march unarmed. Still, leading historian Enrique Krauze recently criticized Marcos for resorting to a theatrical caravan rather than merely arguing his case before Congress. "In the current political environment--with its strange mix of hope, energy, fear and uncertainty--the march is a risky act, a golden opportunity for provocateurs of the most diverse affiliation," Krauze wrote in the newspaper Reforma. =================================================================== The Porto Alegre Media Blackout by Norman Solomon, AlterNet February 1, 2001 PORTO ALEGRE, Brazil -- The question, from a participant here at the World Social Forum, was polite and understated: "Sometimes, one wonders if the poor political consciousness and the lack of information about the world of the standard American is not one of the problems of the world today. Do you think we all could help in some way to get Americans more aware of the rest of the world?" The question -- directed at me because I'd just given a speech -- hung in the air while my brain fumbled for a fitting response. Programming decisions by U.S. media executives loom large at home and abroad. A hundred years ago, when Queen Victoria died, the sun never set on the British empire. Today, around the world, the market shares are shimmering for AOL Time Warner, the Walt Disney Co. and Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. When I tuned into CNN International in this city on Brazil's southern coast, a report about fashion was explaining that "today's revolutionary woman" prefers to wear chiffon. More Spanish-speaking people on the planet get their news from one website -- CNNenEspanol.com -- than from anywhere else on the Web. Editors in Atlanta and Washington, employed by a subsidiary of AOL Time Warner, are deciding what news and views will reach huge numbers of readers online. Corporate media globalization is part of what's come to be known as "neo-liberalism" -- worldwide policies giving top priority to corporations and their quest for maximum profits. As part of the movement to challenge neo-liberalism, about 4,700 delegates and 10,000 other people from 122 countries participated in the first-ever World Social Forum to share information and develop strategies. Key concerns of the global South -- where extreme poverty and rampant inequities are ever-present -- came through loud and clear here in Porto Alegre. The men and women crowding into overflow sessions included 1,700 journalists. But in the United States, even the most avid news consumers didn't learn much about this auspicious convergence. Don't blame the wire services. For a week, some of the world's biggest -- including the Associated Press -- produced a steady stream of informative news reports from Porto Alegre. But the day after the World Social Forum adjourned, when I did a search of the comprehensive Nexis database, it was clear that the event didn't make the U.S. media cut. The Washington Post did better than most American outlets, but it wasn't much -- a single news story on Jan. 27. The Los Angeles Times didn't mention the World Social Forum at all. Neither did USA Today. During the week, the country's "paper of record" -- the New York Times -- published only one paragraph on the subject, rendered in McPaper roundup style. "BRAZIL: ORDERED OUT -- The French farm workers' leader Jose Bove, best known for vandalizing McDonald's restaurants to protest globalization, has been detained by the federal police and ordered to leave Brazil. The action came after Mr. Bove, at a forum in Porto Alegre held to counter a world leaders' meeting in Davos, Switzerland, joined Brazilian farmers in attacking a farm owned by the Monsanto Corporation, which grows genetically modified soybeans." Readily available AP stories had offered much more context for the Bove incident. For instance: "Bove and about 1,300 farmers destroyed five acres of soybeans at the Monsanto farm near Porto Alegre last Friday, saying the beans were genetically engineered. At the Forum's closing rally, Bove urged the Landless Workers' Movement to reoccupy the farm and turn it into an environmentally friendly operation." At that rally, thousands of people chanted: "Bove is my friend, touch him and you touch me." Landless workers of Brazil and a leader of French farmers joined together to fight for redistribution of land, social justice and environmental protection. It was a dramatic alliance -- just one of many that flowered at a highly disciplined and creative international conference of activists from all over the world. There were hundreds of other highly significant stories to be told from the World Social Forum. Most U.S. news outlets didn't tell even one. National Public Radio did send a correspondent to Porto Alegre, and a pair of his reports aired. On "Morning Edition," NPR correspondent Martin Kaste provided a rather upbeat definition of "neo-liberalism," describing it as "the American-inspired philosophy that smaller government is better." NPR's final report from Porto Alegre mentioned a proposed policy step toward reducing the world's extreme economic disparities. But in that "All Things Considered" piece, the subject came up not to be explored but to serve as a setup for a cutesy -- and disparaging -- tag line. "One of the most talked-about plans is a worldwide tax on international financial transactions, something that defenders say could raise money for developing countries while at the same time making it harder to move funds across borders," the news report said. "Even this concept, however, is not embraced by everyone. At the start of the conference, an anti-globalization delegate from Holland was seen loudly cursing the Brazilian cash machines for not accepting her Dutch ATM card. Martin Kaste, NPR News, Porto Alegre, Brazil." From North America, it's difficult to get a clear look at the global South -- and at the pro-democracy movement against corporate rule -- with nose pointed high in the air. ----- Norman Solomon is a syndicated columnist. His latest book is "The Habits of Highly Deceptive Media." =================================================================== "Anarchy doesn't mean out of control. It means out of 'their' control." -Jim Dodge ====================================================== "Communications without intelligence is noise; intelligence without communications is irrelevant." -Gen. Alfred. M. Gray, USMC ====================================================== "It is not a sign of good health to be well adjusted to a sick society." -J. Krishnamurti ====================================================== "The world is my country, all mankind my brethren, and to do good is my religion." -Thomas Paine ______________________________________________________________ To subscribe/unsubscribe or for a sample copy or a list of back issues, send appropriate email to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>. ______________________________________________________________ **How to assist RadTimes: An account is available at <www.paypal.com> which enables direct donations. If you are a current PayPal user, use this email address: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, to contribute. If you are not a current user, use this link: <https://secure.paypal.com/refer/pal=resist%40best.com> to sign up and contribute. The only information passed on to me via this process is your email address and the amount you transfer. Thanks! <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/">www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. 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